As Found Taken From Time Immemorial
Poetry is usually words written new. But poetry can also be words found within another work. One type of "As Found" poetry is "Blackout Poetry" where you take a page and leave a new poem by blacking out the other words on the page. A simpler way is to circle words and connect them into a new poem. Here is one from Book IX of the Odyssey (as you see in the picture):
crown of tales / sings like bitter wine
escape shimmering fame / the gods fatal craving / deep in the heart
sweet homeward voyage / hardship come no more
But the “as found” poem I fashioned here is even more direct. I was reading "Why Homer Matters" and realized there was a poem hidden within the prose. All it needed was a little work. A little help.
Here are words from the author Adam Nicolson, and a verse from Richard Lattimore's translation of Homer's Odyssey.
I hope it spins the magic of words for you, as it did for me.
As Found Taken From Time Immemorial
(These Are Not My
Words )
At the dinner, lit with braziers
At the dinner, the epitome of civilization
At the dinner, the
best that life can offer
At the dinner, where
the bard tells the tale
Odysseus cannot bear
the tale
Odysseus connot bear
what he now hears
He listens
He melts
The word is snow in
heat
The word is sugar in
water
The word is a cloud
giving up rain
The word is flesh
falling from a long dead body
The word is a
creature that pines away
As a woman weeps,
lying on the body
Of her dear husband
who died for his city
Of her husband who
died for his people
As he tried to beat
off the day of pitilessness
As she sees him lying
and gasping for breath
She winds her body
around him
She cries high and
piercing
She cries while the
men behind her
Hit her with the
butts of their spears
They lead her away to
captivity to work to sorrow
Her cheeks are hollow
with her grief
Such are the tears
Odysseus lets fall
from his eyes
The gods did this
The gods did this
They spun the
destruction of people
For the sake of the
singing of the bards hearafter
For the sake of the
word
This is the Odyssey
This is the Odyssey
This is the Odyssey
Thank you thank you
thank you
Adam Nicolson Richard
Lattimore Homer
January 2021
North Andover, Mass
